DOCTORS and nurses will get a 3 per cent pay rise, the Government announced today.
Ministers awarded the salary hike after initially proposing only a 1 per cent increase, which was lambasted by NHS staff as derisory.
The Department for Health estimates the average nurse will pocket £1,000 more each year, while hospital cleaners an extra £540.
The 3 per cent uplift also includes GPs, consultants, paramedics and dentists.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: “NHS staff are rightly receiving a pay rise this year despite the wider public sector pay pause, in recognition of their extraordinary efforts.”
But it is unlikely to wash with medical unions – some of which have been pushing for a 12 per cent rise.
Tonight’s update came after Care Minister Helen Whately bizarrely failed to make the announcement to MPs in the Commons earlier, despite it being widely briefed.
Labour’s Shadow health minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan blasted the minister for making a statement that “turned out to be nothing”.
Although the NHS pay-review body recommends salaries, the Department for Health makes proposals and ultimately decides.
In March then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a 1 per cent hike was all that was “affordable” in light of unprecedented pandemic spending.
Medical unions fumed it represented a real-terms pay cut because inflation has swelled by 2.5 per cent.
The Royal College of Nursing has even campaigned for a 12.5 per cent increase.
